The first deportation flights from Florida’s new immigration detention center in the Everglades began departing this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Friday, about three weeks after detainees started to arrive at what appears to be the nation’s only state-run migrant detention facility.
The governor did not immediately provide specific details at a news conference, saying only that “a number” of flights carrying “hundreds” of federal immigration detainees have departed the state-run detention center, which Florida officials have named “Alligator Alcatraz.” He said the flights were operated by the Department of Homeland Security, but not where they went after they departed the Everglades.
The facility, which immigration experts have describe as the only one of its kind, is essentially a cluster of hastily erected tents and trailers on an old airfield. Mr. DeSantis said it has been equipped with ground-to-air communications, radar and runway lighting. There are 5,000 gallons of jet fuel on site, he added.
“This airport is able to accept commercial flight aircraft and conduct both day and nighttime operations,” he said.
Environmental groups have sued to halt construction of the detention center, which is surrounded by protected lands. Kevin Guthrie, head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, was dismissive about environmental concerns at the news conference. He claimed that the facility, an old training airport, used to have “over a hundred flights a day,” a detail that it was not possible to immediately confirm.
The state is using the old airfield, which belongs to Miami-Dade County, under emergency powers. On Friday, the county’s mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, renewed her request to state officials brief county officials on the detention center and provide them with access to conduct oversight.
“The county received no formal communication from your office prior to the development and deployment of this facility, and repeated efforts to seek transparency have been ignored or rebuffed,” she wrote in a letter to Mr. Guthrie. “Our residents deserve full accountability for operations taking place on county-owned property.”
Florida officials raced to build the center last month, justifying its remote, swampy location in part by saying that deportation flights would be able to take off from there.
“There’s an 11,000-foot runway, which will enable large planes to come in and out and can carry hundreds and hundreds of people,” James Uthmeier, the state’s Republican attorney general, told Fox News on June 25.
State officials have said the detainees at the facility have final deportation orders from the federal government, but immigration lawyers say they have not had adequate access to clients being held there. The American Civil Liberties Union sued last week over detainees’ lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process.
“The U.S. Constitution does not allow the government to simply lock people away without any ability to communicate with counsel or to petition the court for release from custody,” Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the A.C.L.U.’s National Prison Project and the lead lawyers in the case, said in a statement.
Mr. Guthrie said on Friday that on-site lawyer visits “should be starting” on Monday and that they did not begin earlier because of technology problems.
Mr. DeSantis said that the Everglades detention center has a current capacity of “a couple thousand” detainees. Mr. Guthrie said state officials planned to grow that capacity to about 4,000. If the facility becomes more full, Mr. DeSantis reiterated his plans for the state to open a second detention center in North Florida.
The DeSantis administration has sought to deputize Judge Advocate General Corps officers from the Florida National Guard to serve as immigration judges at the Everglades center, in an effort to fast-track deportations. Mr. DeSantis said that the federal government has not yet given the state that approval.
Florida has also developed a pilot program to encourage unauthorized immigrants to self-deport, Larry Keefe, the executive director of a new state board overseeing immigration issues, told the board on Tuesday. The board comprises Mr. DeSantis; Mr. Uthmeier; Blaise Ingoglia, the state’s chief financial officer, and Wilton Simpson, the state’s agriculture commissioner.
Florida’s self-deportation initiative, in partnership with Customs and Border Protection, is distinct from a federal program that offers unauthorized immigrants a $1,000 cash stipend and a plane ticket to fly to their home country, Mr. Keefe said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting from Washington.